Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Advent Calendar: Day 2

December 2nd: Funky Funky Christmas

I don't know about you -- seriously, I honestly don't -- but one of the reasons I look forward so much to Christmas is that it's the one time of the year when I feel I can legitimately free from its workaday constraints my ineffable natural tendency towards the funk. Consequently, I couldn't wait a moment longer to present for your delectation a mini mixtape dedicated to all things groovy, bootycentric and generally frugagogodelic.

James Brown is, naturally, present and correct; so too, leaving us on a more up-to-date urban note, are the splendid TLC, managing to make even Leroy Anderson's stratospherically perky 'Sleigh Ride' sound completely the same as everything else they ever recorded.

But it's the unknown unknowns who carry the day here, I think. Radical poppet Akim reports back on Santa's soul quotient -- "He had an afro / He was really outta sight"...; Chicago's seventh finest Electric Jungle tell it like it is, or rather was in 1970 -- "Sho nuff funky Christmas Day," they explain, not a little ingenuously; and husband-and-wife duo Jim & Cathy (who subsequently divorced) spread some good news about Santa's sartorial satori. (Too much, huh?) And the whole shebang is ushered in by Thompson favourite mash-up wizard Lenlow, who immerses Augie Rios's 1958 hit in a swirly trifle of sweet sounds squeezed from Public Enemy and Les Rhythmes Digitales.

So, get up out of that thermal hammock, Gran'pa, and shake your red-nosed reindeer motif cummerbund at this little lot -- for, lo!, the Thompson's Christmas Funkateria is very definitely open for business -- the halls are decked with Kwanzaa candles and the tinsel is bum-shaped. In a good way.

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Chris Goode & Co: Hippo World Guest Book conceived and performed by CG, with a recorded introduction by Oliver Postgate. Caryl Churchill Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX. Wednesday 22 January 2014, 7.30pm. £10 (£8 concs.). Book online.

Scottee Inc.: The Worst of Scottee co-devised and performed by Scottee, co-devised and directed/musical direction by CG. Roundhouse, London NW1. 4-15 February 2014, 8pm. £15 (£10 previews, 4-5 Feb.) Book online.